Drinking cups, coffee cups, and other types of drinking vessels and cups from which a beverage can be consumed, are frequently used in combination with a cooperating lid adapted for attachment to the cup rim. Some lid designs require removal of the lid from the drinking vessel for consuming the beverage contained therein. However, most commercial drinking cup lids today feature a drink-through opening which allows a user to consume the beverage contained in the drinking vessel without removing the lid therefrom. Note that herein the terms “cup” and “vessel” are used generically to refer to all types of vessels, cups, and containers from which a beverage may be consumed.
Commonly used coffee cup lids typically feature a drink-through opening proximate to the perimeter of the lid in the form of a small, unobstructed aperture or hole within the lid that allows a person to drink coffee or another beverage without removing the lid from the cup. In addition, at least one separate vent hole is often included in a disposable lid so as to allow air to enter the cup and equalize the pressure inside the cup as the beverage is consumed.
While providing a drink-through opening in a coffee cup lid facilitates consumption of the beverage without separating the lid from the drinking vessel, it also creates a risk that beverage could be inadvertently splashed or spilled out through the opening if the cup is inadvertently tipped or jostled, or is subjected to sudden acceleration or deceleration. These situations are often encountered when the cup or other drinking vessel is being transported, whether by hand, within a cup holder in a moving vehicle, or while walking, climbing stairs, or traveling in an elevator or escalator.
Inadvertent spilling and splashing can create dangerous situations when a user is driving or moving. With today's busy lifestyle, consumption of beverages on-the-go has become commonplace, and inadvertent spilling and splashing of a beverage can be particularly irksome and embarrassing for a user when en route to work or to a professional and/or social engagement. The term “spilling” as generally used herein refers to inadvertent flowing of a beverage out of a cup or drinking vessel, and the term “splashing” as generally used herein refers to the inadvertent ejection or scattering from a cup of beverage droplets or modest quantities of beverage that become airborne due to sudden and/or rapid movement or halting of the drinking vessel.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that lids for use with cold beverages such as sodas often include holes that fit snuggly around drinking straws, whereby the length of the straw effectively prevents splashing and spilling. However, straws are typically not practical, or at least are not preferred, when consuming a hot beverage such as tea, coffee, or hot chocolate.
Lids designed for use with hot beverages sometimes include small holes or flaps near their rims that can be opened for drinking. However, turbulence or “sloshing” of a beverage when the cup has substantial quantities of beverage therein can easily lead to spilling of some liquid out from the hole, and jostling of the cup can cause liquid to splash or spill through such a hole or flap.
A drainage well is sometimes provided in a disposable lid so that small amounts of liquid that do spill or splash inadvertently from the drinking orifice (or through a vent hole) will pool in a designated region of the lid and drain back into the cup. However, such drainage wells are typically shallow, and are only effective if the cup is maintained in a near-vertical orientation. In certain situations, additional jostling may even cause liquid to splash or spill out of the drainage well before it has drained back into the cup.
A drinking hole or orifice is sometimes placed at the top of a raised spout, so as to reduce the likelihood that liquid will spill or splash from the drinking hole. However, since the drinking hole is in the direct path of a beverage splash, liquid is still able to splash through the drinking hole if the cup is shaken or jostled with sufficient force, for example if the beverage is being consumed while traveling in a vehicle and the vehicle drives over a rough road, a speed bump, a pot hole, or some other uneven feature in the road (such as train tracks), or is forced to brake or maneuver suddenly.
Various types of lids for use with drinking cups that feature closable drinking orifices or spouts have been proposed in the art, and some of them are in commercial use. One such lid construction includes a rotatable second piece that can seal the drinking orifice, so that the drinking orifice can be opened and closed by sliding the rotatable second piece to alternate between open and closed positions. Another lid construction includes a connected or tethered cap or plug that can be used to seal the drinking orifice. Still another approach for preventing spills and splashes from the drinking orifice involves placing an adhesive sticker on the drinking orifice (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,749).
Yet another approach involves using a drinking cup with a traditional lid having a drinking orifice, and equipping the cup-lid combination with a separate plug device having a handle end for grasping and a narrow elongated end that is inserted in the drinking cup through the drinking orifice in the lid for temporarily sealing the drinking orifice during transportation or until the user is ready to consume the beverage. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 8,052,003, D660,077, D659,465 and D673,809). Once the user is ready to consume the beverage, the plug device is removed by pulling on its exposed handle-end and simply discarded.
These approaches, however, only provide protection from spilling and splashing when the drinking orifice is closed or blocked, and do not naturally inhibit spilling and splashing when open. Furthermore, when the drinking orifice is closed or blocked it also prevents a user from consuming the beverage. In addition, it is too cumbersome and burdensome for a user to repeatedly plug and unplug the drinking orifice manually each time a portion of beverage is to be consumed. Accordingly, once a user has unplugged the drink-through opening, the lid essentially tends to function as an open-spout lid and does not provide splash protection when resting unplugged or during use or consumption of the beverage. Also, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill that these lid solutions tend to be multi-piece constructions, which may be generally more expensive to produce than a one-piece construction lid, and may require an assembly step after forming or molding the lid.
One approach for inhibiting splashing and spilling without using a plug or cap is to provide barriers or baffles in a one-piece lid that allow flow of liquid for drinking while inhibiting splashing by blocking direct paths from the liquid out through the opening. Examples are presented in published co-pending application Ser. No. 12/639,649 to Whitaker (US Pat. Pub. 20100133272) and Ser. No. 14/245,116 to Mithal (US Pat. Pub. 20140299614), both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Another approach is to provide a two-piece or multi-piece lid assembly comprising a separate insert that can be placed either on a cup or underneath a lid, wherein the separate insert has fluid passages that are not aligned with the drinking and vent openings in the lid, thereby preventing straight-line travel by splashed, airborne droplets from the cup interior through a lid opening, and forcing the beverage to flow through a convoluted path before exiting through the lid (see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,540,350, 5,979,689, 6,305,571, 6,318,584, 6,533,139, 6,811,049 and 7,959,029).
However, while a two-piece lid assembly can provide good splash resistance, it presents some practical hurdles. If the insert and the lid are required to be installed by a consumer, then it may be inconvenient and cumbersome for the consumer. Also, separate inserts can become dislodged or can shift in position, and can therefore be unreliable. This is true even if the insert is loosely attached to the lid or separately attached to the rim of the cup. On the other hand, if this solution is implemented by a lid manufacturer, it necessarily raises the cost of the lid, since manufacturing involves providing and installing a separate insert within a lid as part of a secondary operation.
A two-piece splash and spill resistant lid is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,959,029 to Whitaker et al. (Whitaker '029). The two-piece design of Whitaker '029 inhibits all direct paths of beverage flow through the spout opening when the cup is upright, and thereby significantly reduces the likelihood that beverage will splash or spill. However, the design of the two pieces is complex, and therefore expensive to produce. Among other things, the insert piece and the outer lid have to be molded or formed in separate molding or forming operations, and then combined to deliver a splash resistant lid assembly. An additional shortcoming that has been observed with the two-piece assembly according to Whitaker '029 is that the insert often tends to fall off into the cup after some time if it is not firmly attached to the lid.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved splash and spill resistant drinking cup lid that enables a user to consume a beverage through the lid while inhibiting inadvertent spilling and splashing of the beverage from the cup, without requiring deployment of manual plugs or blocking devices, and while minimizing production costs, due to an easily produced lid structure and due to elimination of a need to maintain two separate product lines. These and other needs, as shall hereinafter appear, are met by the device of the present invention.